Oh, Pretty Woman
"Oh, Pretty Woman" or "Pretty Woman" is a song recorded by Roy Orbison, written by Orbison and Bill Dees. It was released as a single in August 1964 on Monument Records and spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from September 26, 1964, the second single by Orbison to top the US charts. It was also Orbison's third single to top the UK Singles Chart.
The record ultimately sold seven million copies and marked the high point in Orbison's career. Within months of its release, in October 1964, the single was certified gold by the RIAA. At the year's end, Billboard ranked it the number four song of 1964.
"Oh, Pretty Woman" was later used for the title of the 1990 film Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, and the 2018 Broadway musical .
Overview
The title was inspired by Orbison's wife, Claudette, interrupting a conversation to announce she was going out. When Orbison asked if she had enough cash, his co-writer Bill Dees interjected, "A pretty woman never needs any money."Orbison's recording of the song was produced by Fred Foster on August 1, 1964. There were four guitar players at the session: Roy Orbison, Billy Sanford, Jerry Kennedy, and Wayne Moss. Sanford, who later played on sessions for Elvis Presley, Don Williams and many others, played the intro guitar. Other musicians on the record included Floyd Cramer on piano, Henry Strzelecki on upright bass, Boots Randolph and Charlie McCoy on saxophones, Buddy Harman on drums, and Paul Garrison on percussion. Bill Porter served as recording engineer.
Orbison posthumously won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his live recording of "Oh Pretty Woman" on his HBO television special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night. In 1999, the song was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it number 224 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." On May 14, 2008, The Library of Congress selected the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Copyright issue
In 1989, rap group 2 Live Crew recorded a parody of the Orbison song, using the alternate title "Pretty Woman", for their album As Clean As They Wanna Be. 2 Live Crew sampled the distinctive bassline from the Orbison song, but replaced the original lyrics with talk about a hairy woman and her bald-headed friend and their appeal to the singer, as well as denunciation of a "two-timing woman."Orbison's publisher, Acuff-Rose Music sued 2 Live Crew on the basis that the fair use doctrine did not permit reuse of their copyrighted material for profit. The case, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decided in 2 Live Crew's favor, greatly expanding the doctrine of fair use and extending its protections to parodies created for profit. It is considered a seminal fair use decision.
Sales performance
Weekly charts| Chart | Peak position |
| Australia | 1 |
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| Belgium | 5 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Denmark | 3 |
| France | 8 |
| Finland | 9 |
| Ireland | 1 |
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| New Zealand | 1 |
| Switzerland | 1 |
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Year-end charts
| Chart | Rank |
| South Africa | 15 |
| UK | 7 |
| US Top Pop Singles | 4 |
Certifications
Van Halen version
recorded the song for their 1982 album, Diver Down. It was preceded by a synth-driven intro titled "Intruder". For the video of the single, the two songs were joined, giving a running-time of 4:34. This was done to lengthen the song in order to fit the video's running time.In the music video, the band members dress as a samurai, Tarzan, a cowboy, and Napoleon. Per a hunchbacked onlooker's request, they rescue a captive girl. It was one of the first videos banned by MTV, due to its opening sequence, where the captive girl is tied up and fondled against her will by a pair of little people. The ban was eventually lifted, as MTV sister network VH1 Classic would later air the video.
This was the band's second Top 20 hit, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also peaking at number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.
Chart history
Weekly charts| Chart | Peak position |
| Australia | 59 |
| Canada RPM Top Singles | 15 |
| Netherlands | 33 |
| UK | 47 |
| US Billboard Hot 100 | 12 |
| US Billboard Mainstream Rock | 1 |
| US Cash Box Top 100 | 10 |
Year-end charts
| Chart | Rank |
| Canada | 51 |
| US Top Pop Singles | 88 |
| US Cash Box | 66 |